Thursday, 29 March 2018

He was born in Romny, Ukraine.He was a composer and researcher of Jewish
music who had studied music in Leipzig, Jena, and Zurich.Over the years 1924-1938, he lived in Vienna
and from there departed for the land of Israel.He published works in Goldene keyt
(Golden chain) in Tel Aviv.In book
form: Der vilner balebesl (1816-1850),
legende vegn a yidish-muzikalishn gaon, biografishe dertseylung (The young
gentleman of Vilna, 1816-1850, legend of a Jewish musical genius, a biographical
story) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1968), 56 pp.Stutshevski would say that he wrote in German and the publisher or
editor would translate into Yiddish.However, neither in his books nor in his writings for Goldene keyt is it clear that they were
translations, and Avrom Sutzkever conveyed to me that his works in the periodical
he edited (Goldene keyt) were written
in Yiddish.Books in Hebrew include: Musika yehudit, mahuta vehitpathuta
(Jewish music, its essence and development), trans. Yitsḥak Avishai (Tel Aviv, 1944/1945), 72 pp.; Folklor musikali shel yehude mizraḥ-eropa
(Musical folklore of the Jews of Eastern Europe) (Tel Aviv, 1958), 93 pp.; Haklezmorim, toledotehem, ora-ḥayehem
viyetsirotehem (Klemers: Their history, their way of life, and their works)
(Tel Aviv, 1959), 223 pp.He died in Tel
Aviv.

He was born in Zbarzh (Zbarazh),
Galicia, where his father (Arn Polyak) was a religious judge.Until age ten he studied with his father and then
until age seventeen in a yeshiva in Bród (Brody).Under the influence of followers of the Jewish
Enlightenment in Bród, he left the yeshiva and began studying secular subject
matter.He lived in Bród until 1827,
supporting himself as a private tutor, while at the same time studying at the
Warsaw Lycée.At the time of the Polish
uprising of 1831, he left for Berlin, studied medicine at university, and
received his doctor’s degree in 1834.He
then returned to Warsaw and until his death practiced as a doctor in a local
hospital and privately.At the end of
1843, at the request of the Warsaw health department, he translated from Polish
into Judeo-German, under the title Marpe
leam (Healing the people), several brochures about hygiene which were
distributed for free among the poor Jewish population.He authored medical books in Hebrew and
Polish, among them: Rofe hayeladim, kolel
etsot tovot veneemanot lishemor beriut hayeladim (Children’s doctor, including
good advice and loyalty to keep children healthy), “the pediatrician,” “a
textbook for how to prevent children’s diseases” (Warsaw: 1847), 64 pp., second
edition (1876), with a preface which includes his autobiography in Hebrew.He also authored: Refuot yeladim (Pediatrics) (Warsaw, 1850); and Orot ḥaim (Lights of life)
(1853)—both works in Hebrew with Yiddish explanations.He also prepared for publication Dr. M. Levin’s
Refuot haam (Medicine for the
people), a volume about hygiene (Lemberg, 1851), with his annotations in “the
spoken language, Judeo-German.”As Dr.
Yankev Shatski put it, “Dr. M. Studentski over the course of forty years was
the idol of the Warsaw Jewish poor and often, instead of taking remuneration
for a visit, he would give his patient the Yiddish booklets on hygiene and
health, as a gift.”He died in great
poverty in Warsaw.

He
was born in Kosov-Telaki (later, Kosów
Lacki), Poland.The son of
an itinerant schoolteacher, he attended religious primary school, the Węgrów yeshiva, as well as the yeshiva
of the Sokolov rebbe.He later worked as
an assistant to a primary village schoolteacher, and after WWI he began on his
own to study secular subjects.He worked
as a cobbler, a baker, and did business in a village.In 1923 he made his way to Argentina.There he became an apprentice to a carpenter.In 1927 he moved to Montevideo, Uruguay.He was the organizer of the “Workers’ Home”
and “Workers’ Kitchen” with the left Labor Zionists in Montevideo, where he
also helped organize a division of YIVO.In the early 1930s, he founded (with Shame Grinberg) the weekly
newspaper Dos vort (The word) in
Montevideo, wrote for it, and was also its administrator.In 1936 he published the party organ of the
Labor Zionists in Uruguay: Dos
arbeter-palestine (The workers’ Palestine).In 1953 he began to publish the Umophengike
idishe tribune (Independent Jewish tribune), served as editor and
administrator, and also wrote for it along the lines of Mapam (United Workers’
Party).For more than ten years he was
the Uruguayan correspondent for the daily Di
prese (The press) in Buenos Aires.He wrote on literature, Jewish issues, and general socialist
problems.He also contributed to: Folksblat (People’s newspaper), Unzer fraynt (Our friend), and Haynt (Today) in Montevideo.He was last living in Montevideo.

He came to the United States in his
youth.He began writing humorous
sketches for Der groyser kundes (The
great prankster) in New York and other humorous periodicals. From 1929 he published short humorous stories
on the humor page of the Forverts (Forward)
in New York.He died in New York.

He was born in Vilna.He studied in religious primary school, a
Russian elementary school, the first secular Jewish school run by “Mefitse haskole” (Society for the promotion of enlightenment
[among the Jews of Russia]), and Epshteyn’s
Vilna Hebrew High School.He placed
poetry in various Vilna publications, such as: Grinike beymelekh (Little green trees), Der khaver (The friend) (1919-1920), Unzer fraynd (Our friend), Vilner
tog (Vilna day), Yugnt-zhurnal
(Youth journal), Vegn (Pathways),
Grosman’s almanac Vilne in vort un bild
(Vilna in word and image), and Zalmen Shik’s 1000 yor vilne (One thousand years of Vilna).He also published under the pen names Leyb
S-ki and Leyb Kornbliml.From 1933 he
served as an internal contributor to Unzer
fraynd (later, Di tsayt [The
times]).He was living in Vilna after
the entry of the Soviet Russian authorities in 1939 and under the rule of the
Lithuanians (beginning in late 1939).He
also contributed work to the Soviet Russian and Polish press.According to Shmerke Katsherginski, he was
among the exiled writers who were killed in Siberia.

Wednesday, 28 March 2018

He was born in Brooklyn, New
York.He studied with an itinerant
schoolteacher, in the Chaim Berlin Yeshiva, the Jewish teachers’ seminary, the
teachers’ course at Workmen’s Circle, a high school, City College, and New York
University (where he studied drama).During WWII he served in the American Army.From 1947 he was employed in the
administration of the Forverts
(Forward) and was in charge of the daily section of the newspaper entitled “Radyo
un televizye” (Radio and television).He
also published reviews of theater and films under the pen name S. Elye.He published humorous sketches and articles
on music in the weekly newspaper Der id
(The Jew), edited by A. Rozmarin.He
wrote an English-language column for the Jewish
Press Syndicate, which appeared (1950-1952) weekly in Anglophone Jewish
newspapers.He also contributed articles
to: Veker (Alarm) and Unzer tsayt (Our time) in New York.For a time he also placed work in Kinder-tsaytung (Children’s newspaper),
published by the Workmen’s Circle in New York.In later years he served as manager of the image department of the Forverts.He died in New York.

He was born in Ostrov (Ostrów), Lomzhe
region, Russian Poland.He attended
religious elementary school, yeshivas, and a Russian public school.He studied the cantorial art and music in
Vilna, and he sang in the Taharat Hakodesh Choral Synagogue in Vilna.He performed at evenings of the historical
ethnographic society of Sh. An-ski.For
a period of time he traveled through Lithuania and Latvia with the Vilna
Yiddish operatic theater.From the
summer of 1926 he was living in Canada.Until 1927 he was a cantor in Ottawa, later in Toronto where he was also
active in Jewish community and cultural life.He was a cofounder of the local YIVO, of the local division of the
cantors’ union, and of the “Association of Lithuanian Jews” in Toronto, among
other such organizations.He began
writing in Hebrew, publishing correspondence pieces in Hazman (The times) in Vilna, and from 1912 he wrote in
Yiddish.His first article, concerning
Yiddish theatrical issues, was published in Vilner
vokhenblat (Vilna weekly newspaper) in December 1912, edited by
Lipman-Levin; later, he contributed correspondence pieces, articles, and
surveys of cantorial art and music in: Unzer
osed (Our future), a weekly of the Zionist Youth in Vilna (1918); the
theater newspaper Habima (The stage),
edited by Moyshe Zilburg (1925); and Vilner
tog (Vilna day); among others.From
1926 he was a regular contributor to: Keneder
odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Der
idisher zhurnal (The Jewish journal) in Toronto; and Dos yudishe vort (The Yiddish word) in Winnipeg.He placed work as well in: Forverts (Forward), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning journal), and Der amerikaner (The American) in New York; Idishe tsaytung (Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires; Di shuhl- un khazonim-velt (The
synagogue and cantor’s world) in Warsaw; and the like.His works are included in the anthologies Khazones (Cantorial art) of 1937 and
1947.In book form, he published: Negine-oyflebung (Music revival)
(Toronto, 1952), 24 pp.; and Negine in
yidishn lebn (Music in Jewish life), articles and biographies of Jewish
cantors and composers (Toronto, 1957), 328 pp.He also published under such pen names as: A. Ostrover, N. St-ts, and A.
Vilenski.He served as the Toronto
correspondent for Tog-morgn-zhurnal
(Day-morning journal) in New York.He
died in Toronto.

He was born in Vilna.His father was an employee in a sawmill.He studied in a Russian school.From 1906 he was active in various cultural
groups, dramatic and musical circles.He
wrote a series of musical texts to poems by Leyb Naydus, with whom he was a
close friend.In Vilna’s Grininke beymelekh (Little green trees),
he published translations of Lermontov, as well as Zhukovsky’s “Di milkhome
tsvishn de mayz un di zhabes” (The war between the mice and the frogs).In book form: Oysgeveylte mesholim (Selected fables) from the Russian author of
fables, Ivan Krykov (Vilna: Ost, 1928), 94 pp.During WWI he was held in German captivity, later returning to settle in
Vilna, where he worked in an oil factory.Over the years 1941-1943, he hid out with his family, using Aryan
papers, in various villages in the Narocz area.In early 1943 he was located in the town of Svir (Swir), and later
peasants denounced him; he was then shot along with his wife and two sons.

He was a contributor to Di tsayt (The times) (1920-1922), edited
by D. Pinski.He wrote mainly about
cooperatives—in his day, a pioneering field for Jews in the United States.His writings in book form include: Di kooperative bavegung, vos zi iz un vos zi
darf zayn (The cooperative movement, which it is and what is ought to be)
(New York: Education Committee, Workmen’s Circle, 1919), 220 pp., with
illustrations and a bibliography in English, German, and Russian.This volume consists of two parts: (1) “Di
teorye un praktik fun kooperatsye” (The theory and practice of cooperatives);
and (2) “Kooperative bavegung in farsheydene lender (england, rusland, belgye,
denemark, daytshland, fareynikte shtatn)” (The cooperative movement in various
countries: England, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, United States).The second part also includes (pp. 203-19) a
chapter on Jewish cooperatives.Further
books: Varum yeder arbayter darf vern a
kooperator? (Why should every worker become a member of a cooperative
member?) (New York: Cooperative League of America, 1919), 15 pp.; and Kooperativen in sovet-rusland
(Cooperatives in Soviet Russia) (New York: Jewish Socialist Federation of the
Socialist Party in America, 1920), 29 pp., in pocketbook format.Further biographical information remains
unknown.

He was born in Kishinev,
Bessarabia.He studied in religious
elementary school, later becoming an apprentice to a carpenter.He was subsequently drawn into the Zionist Socialist
party, began reading secular works, and on his own studied general subject
matter.In 1906 after the failure of the
first Russian Revolution, he moved to Argentina.For a time he worked in carpentry.Later, together with his father, he opened
the first Yiddish bookshop in Buenos Aires.He had in his shop the best works then available in Yiddish, and his
home became a meeting place for intellectuals.Several months after the outbreak of WWI (November 15, 1915), there was
founded in Buenos Aires the daily newspaper Di
idishe tsaytung (The Jewish newspaper).Initially a cooperative undertaking, the managers of the newspaper later
hired Y. Sh. Lyakhovitski as editor, Louis Mas as assistant editor, and M.
Stolyar as administrator.In 1930 he
became editor of the newspaper and remained in this position until his
death.Under his leadership the
newspaper became an institution in the life of the Jewish community of
Argentina.He wrote essays and articles
on cultural historical and community themes for it.The newspaper offered a Jewish and socialist
predilection.With his indefatigable
work, Stolyar helped to mold through the newspaper the Argentinian Jewish
community.He attracted as contributors
to the newspaper the finest literary capacities not only in Argentina but from
other countries as well.In 1955 an
annual literary prize was established in his name.It was awarded for the best book in Yiddish
or in Hebrew.He died in Buenos Aires.

He was a rabbi, president of the
court in the Jewish community of Raczki [Poland].He was also a preacher in Yiddish, though his
sermons were initially written in Hebrew.He authored the religious work Shefekh
siaḥ (Pour out complaints) (Vilna: Efel and Garber,
1913/1914), 100 pp., with a preface by the author and a foreword.The text is a collection of commentaries and
explanations of the prayer “Avinu malkenu” (Our father, our king); every verse
was translated from Hebrew into Yiddish.On the frontispiece of the work, he wrote: “We have translated into
Yiddish the precious commentary on the sacred prayer ‘Avinu malkenu,’ as a
favor to the rabbis.”Further
information about the author remains unknown.

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

He was born in Krinki (Krynki),
Grodno region, Russian Poland, the son of Shiye-Heshl Stolarski, a follower of
the Jewish Enlightenment and a Labor Zionist.He studied in a “cheder metukan” (improved religious elementary school)
and the Krinki yeshiva, and he attended a Russian middle school where the
students adhered to circles of various political shades.At thirteen years of age, he was already
active in a Zionist youth organization.When the Labor Zionist party of Poland split in 1920, he moved with the
left wing and worked in the trade union movement of the left Labor
Zionists.In 1925 he was arrested in
Lodz for illegal political activity and thrown in prison in Grodno; at his
trial he was freed and returned to activity in the Lodz trade union
movement.In 1934 he was sent by the
party to Warsaw.At the time of the
outbreak of WWII, he was in Geneva as a delegate to the Zionist congress, and
he soon set off back to Poland via Czechoslovakia and Hungary.In Warsaw he found his wife and son, and together
they fled to the East.They were
separated along the way and only seven years later were reunited in New
York.He came to the United States in
late 1940 via Russia and Japan, as one of a group that was brought by the
Jewish Labor Committee.For a time he
tried to make a living by writing articles and giving lectures, later he turned
to working in a tailor shop, initially as a cutter and later as a presser.He worked for seven years by day in the shop
and in the evenings for the Histadruth campaign.In 1947 he turned to the right Labor
Zionists.In 1949 he became solely
linked to the Histadruth campaign, later becoming an associate director.In 1960 the Histadruth campaign celebrated
Stolarski’s sixtieth birthday.He began
writing in 1920 for Arbeter-tsaytung
(Labor newspaper) in Warsaw.He wrote
about labor Zionism and general political issues as well in: Haynt (Today) and Undzer vort (Our word) in Warsaw; and Lodzer folksblat (Lodz people’s newspaper) and Lodzer arbeter (Lodz worker).In America he wrote for: Morgn-zhurnal
(Morning journal), Idisher kemfer
(Jewish fighter), Proletarisher gedank
(Proletarian idea), and Fraye
arbeter-shtime (Free thought of labor) in New York; Keneder odler (Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Hibru dzhoyrnel (Hebrew journal) in Toronto; Dos vort (The word) in Paris; Di
naye tsayt (The new times), Di prese
(The press), and Idishe tsaytung
(Jewish newspaper) in Buenos Aires; Der
veg (The way) and Dos vort in
Mexico City; and Davar (Word) in Tel
Aviv; among others.He also published in
English in: Jewish Frontier, Contemporary, and Jewish Record.He edited Yidish-zamlung (Yiddish collection),
dedicated to the thirteenth year of the state of Israel and to the fortieth
year of Histadruth, published by the Latin American Department of the
Histadruth Campaign (Mexico City, 1961), 200 pp.; the anthology Hazikaron leshoa veligvure (The memory
of the Holocaust and heroism) (Mexico City: Latin American Department of the
Histadruth Campaign, 1963); Di 71ste
sesye funem rat fun derhistadrut
haovdim, opgehaltn in tel aviv (The 71st session of the
Federation of Labor, held in Tel Aviv) (New York, 1959), 48 pp.; Di histadrut un di medine, di akhte
histadrut konferents oyfgehaltn in tel-aviv (The general labor organization
and the state [of Israel], the eighth Histadruth conference held in Tel Aviv)
(New York, 1956), 78 pp.He also edited
the annual Histadrut-almanakh
(Histadruth almanac), organ of the same department.Among his books: Ber borokhov (1881-1917), tsu zayn fertsiktn yortsayt (Ber
Borokhov, 1881-1917, on the fortieth anniversary of his death) (New York,
1958), 27 pp.; Geto oyfshtand (Ghetto
uprising) (1958, 1962).His pen names
include: Y. Byalostotski, Dovid Grodner, Y. Polin, Observator, Y. Heshelzon,
and Y. Varshanski.From 1972 he was
living in Israel.He died in Tel Aviv.

He was born in Vengrov (Węgrów),
Poland.In 1910 he made his way to
Uruguay.He settled in Montevideo and
opened up a Yiddish publishing house. In
1926 he began published the weekly newspaper Unzer lebn (Our life), the first Yiddish newspaper in the country,
as a weekly for community and cultural issues.

She was born in Shedlets (Siedlce),
Poland, into a devout family.She studied
in a Russian school and with private tutors, and she also attended Hebrew classes.In 1916 she made her way to the United
States.In 1942 she debuted in print
with poems in Der tog (The day) in
New York, and from that point she published poetry also in: Nyu yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly
newspaper), Di prese (The press) in
Buenos Aires, Heymish (Familiar) in
Tel Aviv, and Forverts (Forward) in
New York—in all of which from 1955 she also published short stories and
articles, mainly on the women’s page of Sunday issues.In book form: Mayn velt, lider (My world, poetry) (New York, 1942), 144 pp., with
a preface by Y. Zilberberg; Verter un
verterlekh fun yidishn folklor (Words and aphorisms in Jewish folklore)
(New York, 1976), 36 pp.; Fun fargangene
teg (Of days gone by) (White Plains, New York, 1978), 104 pp.She was active for many years in the schools
of the Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute and the Workmen’s Circle, as well as in
the pioneer women’s organization.Vladimir Khafets and other musicians composed music to accompany Stolovi’s
poems.She died in White Plains, New
York.

Monday, 26 March 2018

He was born in Haisyn, Podolia.His father was an orchard keeper and dried
fruit.He attended religious elementary
school, later studying on his own.In
1909 he came to the United States.He
studied at the agricultural school of Baron Hirsch in Woodbine, New Jersey,
from which he graduated in 1914.He later
studied agronomy at Michigan State College.In 1918 he served in the U. S. Army.From 1919 he was active in the Jewish Agricultural Society and editor of
the monthly Der idisher farmer (The
Jewish famer), with an English section, and for years he published popular
articles on farming issues. He also
organized a series of farming cooperatives, which significantly helped to
improve the economic condition of many Jewish farmers.He was also a lecturer in evening courses for
farmers and worked actively in their organizations.In addition, he organized hundreds of farmers’
meetings and demonstrations in various farming areas in America.He was the organizer and speaker at the
annual farmers’ conference in New York.In book form, he published: Krankhayten
fun beheymes, vi tsu ferhiten un vi tsu laysten hilf in a noyt-fal (Animal
illnesses, how to protect and how to offer assistance in an emergency) (New
York, 1922), 38 pp.; Der farm-ferd, vi tsu
ervehlen, farmehren, bahandlen un bashitsn (The farm horse, how to select,
breed, treat, and protect [them]) (New York: Jewish Agricultural Society,
1924), 54 pp.Stone strove to increase
productivity and care for the health, physically and spiritually, of the lives
of all who sought possibilities to be rescued from sweatshops, stores, and
livelihoods on air.He died in New York.

His original name was S. Ershteyn, and
he was born in Bialystok, Russian Poland.His father was a rabbi in various cities and the author of Ateret yehoshua (The crown of
Joshua).Stone immigrated to the United
States in 1886.He debuted in print in
1900 with an article in Fraye arbeter-shtime
(Voice of free labor) in New York.He
lived also in Pittsburgh and there edited Idisher
telegraf (Jewish telegraph) and published Di idishe pres (The Jewish press).In 1919 he edited Di idishe tsayt
(The Jewish times) and Biznesman
(Businessman) in Los Angeles, California.He also wrote under the pen names: Mayim and Even.

The Anglicized name of Yitskhok
Shteyn, he immigrated to London in his youth and worked as a tailor in a
sweatshop.In the 1870s he was a member
of Arn’s Liberman’s Jewish Socialist Union.He and Nosn Berlin, a raincoat maker, were among the first Yiddish
writers who emerged from the sweatshops.Stone contributed to Morris Winchevsky’s weekly newspaper Der poylisher idel (The Polish Jew) and
later to Arbayter fraynd (Labor’s
friend)—both in London.In his article “Treyd-yunyonizm
un sotsyalizm” (Trade unionism and socialism), published in the first issue of Arbayter fraynd, he wrote: “In a word:
the trade unions can today bring workers very little they can use; they even have
a directly harmful impact by virtue of their misguiding English workers from
the right path which leads to socialism.”Later, though, he changed his stance and in his writings led a campaign
for his “Jewish Tailoring Workers’ Union.”He wrote a story that appeared in a separate pamphlet—one copy is
preserved in the Hebrew University Library—entitled:

A Short

Life Depiction

of a

London Tailor—

Who toiled sadly for several years in hard labor in London and
from whose drudgery he collapsed and very quickly departed this world.Before his death he wrote down his entire
life story to demonstrate a proper moral for all workers in tailoring.

Written
by

Isaac
Stone

Published by the Jewish Tailoring Workers’ Union in the year
the Jewish laborer contemplates your poor state of affairs.

The
story is accompanied by a motto, an eleven-verse poem, “Der fershklafter idel”
(The enslaved Jew).“Isaac Stone,” noted
Kalmen Marmor, “was perhaps the first to write a labor song in Yiddish.”The song sings of the labor exile being bitterer
than the Jewish exile: “But just listen, Jew: What you think is false.No one is in exile, if he is but a man and
this is no exile as it may seem, compared to the whole labor exile which does
exist.”The story was written in the
form of a biography of a London tailor, named Motl, who died at a young age,
and a worker finds the dead man’s writings.In his last years, Stone served as editor of Lidzer ekspres (Leeds express), an Orthodox newspaper, in which he
struggled against anti-religious propaganda in Jewish life.He contributed to Moyshe Bril’s Shulamis.He was well known by the pen name “Der zokn”
(The old man).He published books on
religious themes: Di eybige milkhome tsvishn
yudenthum un ihr shtifkind (The eternal war between Judaism and its stepchild),
a dialogue, “taken from…historical and Biblical sources by Isaac Stone (the old
man), parts 1-3 (London, 1911-1912)”; and Yeshu
hanotsri (Jesus the Christian), “an answer to the soul-stealers” (London:
Idisher zhurnal), 32 pp.He died in
London.

Original family name Stavski, he
Hebraized it to Stavi in the land of Israel.He was born in Antopol (Antopolye), near Brisk (Brest), Lithuania. His father Yankev-Shmuel was a follower of the
Jewish Enlightenment and moved to Antopol after marrying; there he ran a mill
and also dealt in grain and was a synagogue beadle and one of the heads of the
Jewish community.Stavi grew up in a
town in which every Jew had a Jewish prayer belt and a cow, where every weekday
for morning prayers and afternoon-evening prayers people hitched up their carts
before the houses of worship—these were the Jews of Antopol, before going into
the fields and later when coming back, poured into the house of study to seize
the opportunity to pray.Until his bar
mitzvah, Stavi studied in religious elementary school, but he didn’t like
it.He would often get lost in a nearby
meadow or in a barn with calves and cows.He later attended public school.At age sixteen he left the town and lived in Warsaw and Kremenchug,
where his parents had moved.For a long
period of time he remained in Aleksandrowa, at the border between Lithuania and
eastern Prussia, and there he took up business and had great success at it, but
then suddenly he abandoned all of his businesses, returned to Kremenchug to his
parents, and there (in late 1905) lived through the pogrom against the Jews; he
was a firm believer in Zionism and contemplated traveling to the land of
Israel, but in the meantime he went to Warsaw and became involved in
writing.While still in Aleksandrowa, he
attempted to write and even published several correspondence pieces and a poem,
but his actual debut in print took place at the end of 1906, when he published
the sketch “A zumer-fraytog in a kleyn shtedtel” (A summer Friday in a small
town) in Der veg (The path), issue
no. 265, in Vilna.He spent five years
in Warsaw, published stories and sketches in various periodicals and
anthologies (translations into Hebrew as well), and edited several collections
himself, such as: Lebens-klangen
(Sounds of life), Zumer (Summer), Tishre (Tishre [month of the Jewish
calendar]), and Frihling-shtromen
(Spring tides).In 1907 he wrote his
story Lavan haarami (Laban the
Aramaean) and read it before a circle of writer-friends, among them Menakhem
Boreysho and Hillel Tsaytlin.The impact
of this story was huge: “Menakhem locked the door behind me in Zonshteyn’s inn
and said to me: Here will be your grave; don’t publish it as is, until you
translate the story (into Hebrew).I
translated it and submitted it for publication.”The story was published in Dovid Frishman’s Sifrut (Literature)—and it was included
later as well in Pinḥas
Shifman’s reader Bikurim (First
fruits).Bialik was also delighted by
the story.This was a new means to write
about animals—without parable or allegory.Stavi was “the first to open the barn for the Yiddish reader.”At that time he published two anthologies of
his writings in Yiddish—Idilyen un
bilder, a zamlung (Idylls and images, a collection) in 1909 and A tikhel, di beheyme, dos shmeykhel (A
kerchief, the cow, the smile) in 1910—and in Hebrew—and Mizikhronot hayaldut (From memories of childhood) in 1910.Irrespective of his literary success, he did
not wish to remain in Warsaw.“I slipped
out of there quietly, fled, bidding no one farewell.”In late 1911 he made aliya to the land of
Israel, en route stopping in Odessa and meeting Mendele, Bialik, and
Ravnitski.Traveling with him was his
first wife, Roze Lebensboym (known under her name as a poet, Anna Margolin),
but she did not long remain there (Naaman, their son who was born there, and he
stayed with his father after her departure from Israel.)His first years in Israel, Stavi lived in
Neve Shalom.From there he wrote for
Warsaw and New York newspapers.For a
year’s time, he managed the library in a Tel Aviv Hebrew high school.At the beginning of WWI, he worked in farming
in an agricultural collective in Beer Tuvia, “a small corner where the entire
world for me was the land of Israel and all of Israel was for me Beer
Tuvia.”He later worked at Ben Shemen
and Petaḥ Tikva, fell ill with malaria, and became a guard in
Yosef Lishansky’s guard organization “Hamagen” (The shield).In 1917, as soon as he had recuperated
somewhat, he again began working in agriculture.For about eight years he was a day laborer
doing difficult field work at five pounds per month: “I was tied to the earth,
to the land; a person not tied to the land had nothing to look forward
to.”This was a time of taking root in
the land.He knew from Hebrew ever since
he was a child, and now it became his daily language.While working he learned Arabic, and he made
many good friends among the Arab fellahin and Bedouins.This served him well in providing grain for the
Jewish cooperatives.From 1922 he was
living in Tel Aviv.He built a home on
Mendele Street, with lodgers, installed four or five cows, raised them himself,
and then milked them and sold the milk.He did not want to live by writing: “Skin a carcass in the market and
gain no help for bread from literature.”Over the years 1930-1932, he went on a lengthy trip through Europe,
spent time in Poland, France, and other places, and published three volumes of
selected works in Yiddish with B. Kletskin Publishers and two volumes in Polish
translation with Rubin Publishers in Lemberg.In Israel he had spent some eight years not writing and then he began to
write in Hebrew.He nonetheless remained
a lover of Yiddish.His field of vision
had now expanded.Stavi began with the
“mute friends”—the field, the cat, the hen; in Israel he moved on to describe
working people as well, the quiet “idylls” of Antopol life gave way to the
ruggedness of the Negev.Arabs were also
protagonists in his stories.Stavi
especially excelled in this with his Oriental tales.He introduced into Hebrew literature from
Arabic folklore “Itsḥa” (Isaac)—a kind of Oriental “Hershele Ostropolyer”: “The
stories of the Arab came like a refreshment, together with black coffee,
sitting on a blanket spread out with a cushion by the side.Other stories I heard in the quiet
lackadaisical nights, extending over a caravan under the sound of a wooden bell
and the distant cry of a jackal.”He
wrote down 1000 Arab tales for the volume Baderekh
leerets haosher (On the road to the land of happiness), written under the
pseudonym Abu-Naaman (Tel Aviv, 1954), 316 pp.In 1965 he received the Yitsḥak Lamdan Prize from the city of
Ramat-Gan.For many years he also
published drawings of nature and animals, as well as essays, in: Davar (Word), Gilyonot (Tablets), Hasade (The field), and Bitsaron
(Fortress) in New York, among other serials.He published observations of linguistic phenomena.His stories were translated into Russian,
Polish, German, French, and other languages.He also published his writings in separate volumes: Idilyen un bilder, a zamlung (Warsaw, 1909), 80 pp.; A tikhel, di beheyme, dos shmeykhel
(Warsaw, 1909), 32 pp.; Mizikhronot
hayaldut (Warsaw, 1910), 40 pp.; Lavan
haarami (in Hebrew) (Tel Aviv: Devir, 1925), 24 pp.; Yalde adama, sipurim (Children of the earth, stories) (Tel Aviv,
1927), 32 pp.; Shefa; Banegev
(Abundance; In the Negev) (Tel Aviv: Omanut, 1929), 48 pp.; Haboker or (The morning light) (Tel
Aviv, 1930); Shtume fraynt (Silent friend),
vol. 1 of selected writings (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1931), 249 pp.; Ven tog fargeyt (When day comes to an
end), vol. 2 of selected writings (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1931), 244 pp.; Araber dertseyln (Arabs recount), vol. 3
of selected stories (Vilna: B. Kletskin, 1933), 213 pp.; Ben hashemen mibagdad (Oil from Baghdad) (Tel Aviv, 1934); Hakefar haarvi (The Arab village) (Tel
Aviv, 1946), 404 pp.; Yedidim ilmim,
sipurim (Mute friends, stories) (Tel Aviv, 1949/1950), 203 pp.; Baarov yom, sipurim (By the end of the
day) (Tel Aviv, 1952), 205 pp.; Baderekh
leerets haosher (En route to the land of treasure)(Tel Aviv, 1954); Pirke teva velashon (Pieces on nature and language) (Tel Aviv,
1958), 170 pp.; Hazorim bedima
(Sowing with tears) (Tel Aviv, 1959), 193 pp.; Geluyot usetumot belashon (Visible and hidden things in language)
(Tel Aviv, 1960), 189 pp.In Polish: Dlaczego…i inne opowiadania (Why…and other stories)
(Lwów, 1932); and Opowieści
arabskie (Arab tales) (Lwów, 1932).He also wrote under such pen names as Abu-Naaman, M. St., and M.
Samekh.He died in Tel Aviv.

As Yankev Fikhman has noted:

We treasure Stavski’s writings not solely for their
observational faculty, their ability to know the traits of the cow and the
chicken, and their ability to describe with humor possessing poetry and love,
but also the integration of the Jewish condition into the web of their
lives.His little Jewish world rids
itself of depressiveness and seizes hold of hope, joy, and warmth.Home is no longer lonely and poor, when one
senses in the barn the breath of a cow, when one hears in a corner of the
kitchen the squeals of the chicken….In
this, a mirror of love of children and adults for animals, Stavski saw the
entire life of the Jewish shtetl.Stavski’s
deep connection to the world of domesticated animals reveals for us the Jewish
street in a new light of childhood, as it approaches blessed nature.The cow—not only does she provide an
abundance of milk and butter for the poor members of the household; and the hen—not
only does she lay eggs in a corner of yard, she brings to poverty consolation,
sweetness, that caring that influences their fundamental being within the scope
of house and barn….With his stories,
Stavski gave the lie to the received idea that the ghetto Jew did not know the
meaning of an attachment to nature, that it was alien to him to possess a
longing for things which had no value for one’s daily needs.In his descriptions which are so faithful to
reality, he demonstrated insofar as he could a genuine shyness and restraint,
necessarily concealed in the hearts of small-town Jews, for a wall was erected
between them and the green earth.The
love for animals was a compensation for them and a reward for what was taken
from them in the narrow alleys.

E.
Ben-Ezra had the following say:

Not only did he see the shtetl with loving eyes, not only did
he see the people—the Jews as well as the gentiles—but also the mute creatures,
the fields, the cows, the chickens, the dogs.He described them realistically, not like Mendele for whom the field
“spoke” and “thought” like a Jew….Oftentimes, it would appear as though there was no difference for him
between man and animal (“Sheḥora”),
between a young colt, which has lost its mother at a terribly young age, and a
Jewish child who been orphaned (“Der yosem” [The orphan])….Stavi fell in love with the land of
Israel….He performed all sorts of work,
as a simple hard-working farmer, a guard, and lastly a proprietor for
himself.He labored with an Arab fellah,
learned his ways of life, and Stavi showed us the Arab village, his tents in
the world of Oriental fantasy (“Hakefar haaravi” [The Arab village])….He was enthused but he restrained his
enthusiasm, he controlled it.And very
rarely he would lose his temper, and the reader just like him—would warm up to
the point of becoming furious with the same fire as Stavi.One of the most beautiful pearls in Stavi’s
crown is his A tikhel (A kerchief).This is a paean to a Jewish kerchief which
was used for various Jewish ends.Stavi
sees in this kerchief no ordinary, everyday garment, for good deeds are done
with this kerchief, such as: collecting alms, concluding an agreement,
performing a kosher dance, and one sings to the kerchief—and we along with
him.”

Tuesday, 20 March 2018

He was born in Behomet, Bukovina.He was a journalist and theater
enthusiast.He studied in religious
elementary school and yeshiva.As a
youth he moved to Czernowitz.From 1920
he performed in drama circles and directed.During WWII he lived in Tashkent.In 1945 he returned to Czernowitz, and in 1972 he made aliya to
Israel.In the 1930s he began writing
theater reviews and polemical articles in: Tshernovitser
bleter (Czernowitz pages), Vilner tog
(Vilna day), Di frayhayt (Freedom), Folks-shtime (Voice of the people) in
Warsaw, Naye prese (New press) in
Paris, Yidishe kultur (Jewish
culture) in New York, Yisroel shtime (Voice
of Israel), and Folksblat (People’s
news) in Tel Aviv, among others.In his
memory was published the anthology Mesholem
surkin, (Meshulem Surkin), edited by Y. Rudnitski (Tel Aviv, 1978).He died in Bnei-Brak, Israel.

He was born in or near Bendin (Będzin).He
was a regular contributor to the Zaglembyer tsaytung (Zagłębie newspaper).He wrote about N. Sokolov, Ḥ. N. Bialik, and
other great Jewish writers.He was
active in the Zionist movement.In 1936
he published in Zaglembyer tsaytung a
monograph entitled “Zikhroynes fun di ershte tsienistn in zaglembye” (Memories
of the first Zionists from Zagłębie).According to various sources, the Germans shot him in the first days of
their occupation of the Bendin region during WWII.

He was born in Parisov, Shedlets
(Siedlce) district, Poland, into a poor and very devout home.He received a traditional Jewish education,
although early on he began reading secular books.Because of his fervent quarrels with his
Hassidic father, he left for Warsaw when still quite young, and there worked in
a filthy factory; he developed class consciousness at a young age and organized
strikes.It was there as well that he
exchanged blows with someone.Later,
when he was a soldier in the Russian army, his friends dressed him in civilian
clothes and smuggled him into Lemberg.Stodolski did anarchist work there and even created there a small
anarchist group in his name.His
ideological comrades called him: “Prince Stodolski”—an allusion to the great
anarchist, Prince Kropotkin.From
Lemberg he traveled to Paris, and he was active there as well in the anarchist
movement.He mastered French so as to be
able to read French poetry, and in the course of time absorbed the Parisian
mood and became a fervent lover of French culture.In 1912 he came to the United States still
full of anarchist ideas, but under the influence of Dr. Chaim Zhitlovsky, he
became a Jewish nationalist.In New York
he was a partner in the publisher “Grohar-Stodolski” and later, several years
before his death, he was the owner of a Yiddish book company on the Lower East
Side of New York.He began writing
poetry in Paris and debuted in print with Parizer
nokturn (Parian nocturne) in a German translation in the German-language
journal Neue Menschen (New
people).In 1919, when he was already in
the United States, he joined the Inzikh (Introspectivist) group and contributed
to their publications, such as: the journal Inzikh,
the anthology In zikh (a collection
of introspective poetry, published in 1920), the journal Kern (Nucleus), and other periodicals.He was one of the Introspectivists who
battled the group “Di yunge” (The young ones)—including Mani Leib, Moyshe-leyb
Halpern, Zishe Landau, Ruvn Ayzland (Ruben Iceland), and Dovid Ignatov, among
others.In 1944 he published (together
with Meynke Kats and William Abrams) the journal Mir (We)—three issues appeared.Over the course of years, he was a member of the editorial board of Nyu yorker vokhnblat (New York weekly
newspaper).He also published the
journal Undzer horizont (Our
horizon), which ceased publication several times and then returned to print,
once Stodolski saved up a little more money.Two years before his death, he again revived the journal and brought out
four issues, the fifth—after a long break—appeared in December 1961.Much of the journal was filled with his own
poetry, of a mostly extreme modernist style.In book form, he published: Irlikht
(Jack-o’-lantern), poetry (New York: Gov, 1933), 128 pp.; Likht far di lodns (Light by the shutters), poetry (New York: Biderman,
1938), 34 pp.; D”r khayeim zhitlovski
(Dr. Chaim Zhitlovsky), a poem (New York, 1941), 45 pp.He died in New York.

“Over Stodolski’s better poems,”
wrote Yankev Glatshteyn, “shines the sun of the accumulated merit of our
ancestors.This is the way back the
fighting Jew of Kotsk, of Ger, of Makov, whose sun through all the lost lights
became the poet Yankev Stodolski, who has left behind an unassuming legacy of
fine lyrical poetry.”“Stodolski’s
endeavor, his pains in carving out a poetic idea,” noted N. B. Minkov, “he
created alone, but not sedately, a poem, a style, but an intense poem which
carried with it all the signs of an entreaty, a prayer.”